Friday, 21 June 2013

The tome known as the Mythos Angelica Mortis records twenty Astartes Chapters which it calls the Astartes Praeses. These Space Marine Chapters were founded to provide constant watch over the Eye of Terror against the incursions of Chaos. Among this list are the Marines Exemplar, the Night Watch, the Relictors, the Subjugators and the White Consuls. Not listed in the tome are the Emperor's Seraphim. The Seraphim were indeed part of the original founding- guardians of the Scelus Sub-Sector assigned to stand sentinel against the threat of the Black Crusades. The Seraphim are known to have been equipped for specialist ship-borne combat, with advanced Tactical Dreadnought armour and close assault weaponry issued as standard. It is also recorded that their Chapter Master, Leopus Nix, was a potent psyker and was reported to have forbidden the use of scanners in boarding actions when he was present, guiding his squads more accurately by sense alone. Yet the Seraphim disappeared from their posts and history does not reveal their fate.

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My first Space Marine army was the Terminatrus Chapter- cheesy I know, but I was about 10! When I got back into 3rd Ed they were reinvented as the Emperor's Seraphim and were comprised as entirely of Terminators as the Army Lists would allow. Now just recently I have got inspired again to play some Space Hulk and, even better, some Space Crusade. To this end I have stripped the Emperor's Seraphim again, and as I have no real interest in picking up a Marine army (too busy with the Mechanicus) my plan is to paint up both sets as purely for use in the board games. I'll be doing Ultramarines and Blood Angels for SC- but there's a dilemma. I see SC as being set pre-Heresy, as part of the Great Crusade. I'm going to use Mark VI armour (not pre-Heresy I know, but my favourite armour type) but I've never been keen on the Imperial Fists so was going to switch to the enigmatic Mentor Legion which has always been a preference of mine. But ML aren't a part of the first founding so do I go for the Fists because it's more accurate to the fluff or for the Mentors because they're so much cooler? Hmm.

Anyhow, back on topic, I'm going to be painting up a squad of 10 Blood Angels Termies and 10 Deathwing Termies for Space Hulk but I've got some nice early metal Termies that I'm going to paint up again as Emperor's Seraphim, hopefully doing a better job this time. The Seraphim are a part of the Astartes Praeses who slipped up on one occasion, letting a Hulk drift through from the Warp, past their cordon and into Imperial Space.

Realising their mistake too late they pursued the trail of the craft, but by the time they reached it the Hulk had made landfall on a primitive but loyal Imperial world. The devastation was complete. The Seraphim were not equipped to carry out the rites of Exterminatus, but in the name of the Emperor they could not allow the abominations that were spawning upon that world to survive. The Seraphim spent a decade cleansing the planet thoroughly, square mile by square mile, preserving their ammunition by engaging at close quarters with merciful death. This was a scar which would never fade for the Seraphim. For shame they could not return to their posts, nor would they abandon other worlds to the same fate. They swore, standing among the wreckage of the planet, that they would suffer no Hulks to go unchallenged in Imperial space but to hunt and cleanse them until the darkness took them.

Other Chapters have reported the appearance of unmarked but distinctively Imperial ships in the vicinity of Hulks they have been dispatched to investigate. As squads board the Hulks they find themselves joined by mysterious Terminator-suited figures bearing the badge of a fiery, winged axe. These Marines offer no communication and stay hidden in the shadows but the evidence of their presence is always accompanied by carnage- Xenos of all manner; Orks, Eldar, Tyranid and the abhorrent forces of Chaos, slain in the most brutal of fashions, their threat utterly annihilated.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

This week I have uploaded the artwork for the board game, ready to be printed. Now I have to work on the cards and have patience whilst my lovely partner paints the stunning images for the box and character art. Here's a sneak preview of the board as the game starts:

Sunday, 9 June 2013

This time it's not about those pesky Techpriests, for something else lurks on that dark, forbidding planet!

-----------------TRIPODS!--------------------

I've mentioned to some people how I've been making a War of the Worlds based board game called TRIPODS! which is currently in playtest stages (If anybody happens to be of the steampunk persuasion and attending the famed UK convivial 'Weekend at the Asylum' in Lincoln you may have the chance to play (and even take home if you're VERY lucky!) one of the first prototypes. I finished the Tripod model this morning and it has been posing for shots which will be turned into artwork for the game. The pen and ink sketches for the board and cards have been completed but my other half is going to produce oil paintings for the characters and Tripod art over the next few months, based on photos now taken.

Here's a brighter shot for an all-round view. I wanted the Tripod to look like it had a kind of musculature, the book mentions that Martian technology seems to have evolved without the wheel and it seems the best way of avoiding any kind of rotary motion in creating a machine is to use a kind of advanced 'smart' technology, using memory materials to create sinews and tentacular devices. The 'hood' of the martian machine is based loosely on a cobra and intended to give an impression of the shape of the creature within, with a few of the pilot's creepy tentacles protruding from gaps in the scales. It's hard to see from this angle, but the top of the Tripod has a hatch where the martian enters, the ridged panels down the 'spine' of the machine extending to form a ramp for entry. The arrays around the front of the hood are mirrors and lenses for increasing visibility, an extension of the periscopic device used to survey and aim the heat ray from the cylinder pit. The heat ray itself is the small brass 'funnel' wielded by one of the machine's tentacles. There is a similar box from which the black smoke issues. It looks fairly harmless until....

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Hooray! Today the GamesOrkshop passed it's 10,000th view... thanks everyone who turned up and made it happen! To celebrate, and in commemoration of the 21st joinee (Headnhalf of ilikepaintinglead, welcome) I decided to get all my (painted) Mechanicus out and have a big battle between them and the Fimir... Who will win?

The Fimm and the Mistmor launch their assault on the Mechanicus' right flank.

On the left flank the Bansidheia, Tuatha and Shearl , supported by a Jabberwock and Dirach, come up against plasma weapons and Colossi.

The Dirach's daemonic magic holds off the Colossi... for the moment.

Whilst the ancient plasma weapons of the veteran Skitarri keep the Jabberwock at bay.

The clan Drui stands alone...

...against a horde of Interiti!

Fimir slavers lead units of Bolg and Tuatha to his defence.

The Fianna Fimm stand resolute against a Servitor Interiti maniple lead by a fearsome Magos and his retinue.